


A Vote of Pebbles

by Beckymonster



Category: NCIS
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Not Episode Related, Not a Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-26
Updated: 2007-07-26
Packaged: 2019-03-02 05:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13311210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckymonster/pseuds/Beckymonster
Summary: Taking place during 'In The Dark', Ducky muses on friendship, lingerie and possibilities





	A Vote of Pebbles

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Jessi, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [ MTAC](https://fanlore.org/wiki/MTAC), an archive of NCIS fanfiction which closed in 2017. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after August 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator (and this work is still attached to the archivist account), please contact me using the e-mail address on [ the MTAC collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/mtac/profile)

  
Author's notes: My thanks to Periwinkle and Wiccagirl for all their help  


* * *

_“The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”  
Kosh Babylon 5_

He gingerly picks up the leopard skin print bra from the autopsy table. For a moment, he wonders if it belongs to Abigail. The idea is dismissed as being preposterous just as quickly. Leopard skin print is not her style at all. She is more likely to wear black silk or lace as he knows from personal experience. 

He tries to give her some privacy when she changes into her nightclothes. She says it’s ‘sweet but totally unnecessary’. 

The last time they had this conversation, it was at his house. In his bedroom, in his bed. He remembered feeling Jethro cuddle up behind him, pushing himself up on his elbow to watch the exchange between them. Abby was standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the light from the bathroom behind her, clad in her bra and panties. She turned away as she unclasped her bra and he turned to face Jethro with a blush on his cheeks. 

He closed his eyes as he chastely settled his head to rest in the crook of his dear friend’s neck, smelling soap and sawdust on his skin. A moment later he felt the weight of Jethro’s hand on his nape, thumb brushing against his ear.   
Moments passed and the bed dipped as Abby climbed into bed behind him. He felt silk and skin press against his back as arms wrapped over him to hold them close. There was a soft press of lips against his skull and against his forehead. He reached out to grasp hands. Only then he could sleep peacefully. 

If he told anyone else about this strange and wonderful arrangement, they would accuse him of being a dirty old man or worse. Yet it’s not like that at all. Its friendship and comfort and as necessary as breathing some days. What had started out as being platonic is fast becoming something that he’s almost afraid to name lest it evaporate in the morning sun. 

He knows that both Jethro and Abigail have felt the change too. Nothing has been said, because that’s not their style at all, but it has made itself known. Waking up in a tangle of limbs and warm skin pressed into him is both gratifying and a little … as Abby would describe it, ‘hinky’. A good kind of ‘hinky’. 

There is another reason why he will not say anything to them. He’s forgotten how to. It’s been so long (his dalliance with Janice Byers notwithstanding) since he’s given serious consideration to a relationship, that he has forgotten how to … ask for what he wants. Not to mention that he’d be asking two people and not just one. 

Then there is the whole business with Hollis Mann. Jethro doesn’t speak of it and neither Abby or he ask him about it. It’s not their way. To be truthful, he can’t see it lasting very long. It’s only a fling, it’s nothing serious. 

Abby and himself, that is serious to Jethro, Ducky knows that. He wonders how serious and how far it could go if they wanted it to. Perhaps he’ll ask them next time they end up in the same bed.   
The dead do not lie, but the living do. He could not stand to be seen as a charity case, looking for crumbs of affection because he is too ‘old’ for anyone to offer him anything more substantial. In his heart, he is sure that neither Jethro or Abigail would pity him or would turn him away. He just has problems consciously believing that. He is sure that he’ll get there eventually. 

For now, he has more pressing concerns such as reuniting the lingerie with its rightful owner.


End file.
